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going to let her fiddle with him. Maybe she’d discover something new and see if she could reconnect with a brother who blew as hot and cold as a certain Special Case detective.

Chapter Three
    D ante forced himself to focus on the job and not on how fresh and enticing Tori smelled, or how sexy she looked. He swore those damned jeans she wore were sprayed on, and the flimsy blouse accentuated the enticing curve of her breasts. But between building his career and taking care of a sister recovering from the double whammy of breast cancer and a divorce, he didn’t have time for a relationship. So while he might flirt with Tori, because she was a beautiful woman even if she did go furry at least once a month, he wasn’t ready for anything serious. Especially not with a pret. Not because he was prejudiced, but because simply being a pret meant she lived in a world even more dangerous than the one he did. Every day he fought back fear that he’d lose his sister to the cancer that had tried to ravage her body; he wasn’t ready to go through a loss with someone else he cared for. If he had anything more with Tori than a working relationship, his admiration for her intelligence and abilities and, yes, his attraction to her would deepen to something he wasn’t ready for. Because if he fell in love with her and lost her…
    He blew out a breath and tracked bloody footprints across the pavement, stopping next to a torn denim jacket lying a few feet away from the entrance to the now-closed grocery store. “This belong to the vic?” he asked her.
    “I guess so.” She glanced around. “The crime scene specialists are running late on this one.”
    Her sultry voice wrapped around him, tightening his gut and other parts that had no business getting tight on the job. He cleared his throat. “The CSS unit doesn’t have the same sense of urgency for nonfatal incidents.” He hunkered down and looked over the torn and stained jacket, careful not to disturb it. Criminalists would need to photograph it before anyone could move it. “From what I can see, there are holes in the shoulder area.” He tilted his head to look closer. Parts of the jacket were shredded, he guessed from the werewolf’s claws, but several holes had been punctured in the jacket as well. “More than two, which would support the supposition that it was the werewolf who bit the guy, not the vamp.”
    “Yes, well, until we get test results from the hospital, that part’s still up for grabs as far as I’m concerned.” Disgust dried Tori’s tones. “I still wouldn’t put it past that bloodsucker to have been the one to bite the vic. You know, just a slight slip of the fang for a quick snack.”
    Dante studied the ground around the jacket, noting the splashes of blood, then rose to his feet. “You got somethin’ against vamps?” He shot a glance at her from the corner of his eye.
    “Not at all.” She raised her shoulders in a shrug. “Hey, some of my best friends are vampires. I just didn’t like the looks of the guy Knox was talking to.” She blew out a sigh hard enough to ruffle her bangs. “Though it probably was Barry who bit our vic. Poor guy.”
    “You talkin’ about the vic or Barry?” Dante grinned, just a little, at the disgruntled look that crossed her face.
    “Both, I suppose.” She shoved her fingers into the back pockets of her jeans, an action that thrust out her breasts. She seemed completely unaware of her posture.
    Dante was more conscious of it than he should have been.
    “At some point I should head over to the council office to put in a good word or two…or three or four or five, for Barry.” Defensiveness lit her gaze. “He’s not a bad guy, you know.”
    Where’d that come from? He held up one hand in appeasement. “I didn’t say he was.”
    Her sensual lips curved down. “Yeah, well, he attacked a human. I’d think in your book that’d make him a bad guy.” Her arch look challenged him.
    “In my book?”
    She